David Murray - Leadership for Servants
Tag Archive - Leadership

Learning on the tightrope

Jan 9, 2010 • By David Murray • 0 Comments

2009 © Benjamin Haas. Image from BigStockPhoto.com
Should the church have “leaders”? If so, to what extent can church leaders learn from the business world?

In answer to the first question, the Bible does speak of leadership in the church. “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation” (Heb.13:7). This and other verses clearly teach that the church has leaders (”them which have the rule over you”), whose faith is to be followed (insofar as they follow Christ).

As to the second question, we should exercise caution about embracing the business model of leadership wholesale (Luke 22:25-26). Many of us have been burned by ecclesiastical CEO’s and still bear the scars. However, every Pastor and Christian leader has tasks which overlap with other professions – reading, studying, communicating, administration, time management, etc. There is much we can learn from the lessons which other professions have discovered in these areas by God’s “common grace” (or “providential gifts” if you prefer).

The sufficiency of Scripture does not mean that the Bible is exhaustive on every topic, but that it covers every topic sufficiently for us to make the right decisions. Calvin spoke about the Bible as a pair of spectacles through which we view (filter) the world and learn from the “truths” others have discovered. He

One example of this is the Scriptural idea of “servant-leadership.” The business world is increasingly embracing this model of leadership on pragmatic grounds. In some instances, they seem to have a better grasp of what it means than Christians! We can certainly learn from them as we “fill-out” our understanding of biblical leadership.

In fact, if you think about it, every model of leadership found in the Bible is originally derived from “the world.” The concepts of shepherds, stewards, ship-captains, household-managers, teachers, etc., all originated in the world and were adopted and adapted by the Biblical authors to mold and shape Christian leaders. So, we can learn what it means to be a shepherd, steward, etc., by studying these people and professions.

As Christians we are always balancing on that tightrope of being in the world but not of the world, learning from the world without being infected by the world. Let’s pray for one another that we don’t fall off neither on the side of sinful compromise nor of sinful separatism. As John Calvin said in his Institutes of the Christian religion:

The human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator…We will be careful…not to reject or condemn truth wherever it appears (2.2.15).

Pastoring clever people (or herding cats)

Dec 30, 2009 • By David Murray • 0 Comments

Leading Clever People was the title of a recent Harvard Business Ideacast, an interview with Gareth Jones, coauthor of Clever: Leading Your Smartest, Most Creative People. Any Pastor listening to this interview could not but instinctively change the title to Pastoring Clever People. The parallels and overlaps were so obvious, especially when the author compared leading clever people to herding cats! Which Pastor has not been utterly frustrated at how difficult it can be to harness the talents and skills of the most gifted Christians in their congregation. How do you lead people who don’t want to lead and yet don’t want to be led? How do you get your most valuable assets to add value? Jones bulleted his advice:

  • Do explain things and persuade them but don’t tell them what to do — smart people don’t take a leader’s word at face value; they need to understand why they’re being asked to do something.
  • Do use your expertise but don’t use your hierarchy — smart people aren’t impressed with titles.
  • Do tell them what to do but don’t tell them how to do it — smart people enjoy figuring out how to do things and will almost always rise to the challenge.

 

Ted Turner challenges seminary students

Nov 18, 2009 • By David Murray • 0 Comments

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A challenge for Seminary students from Ten Turner (CNN).

“Most people can’t do it, but I think your brain is like a muscle. And just like any other muscle, you can use it and your brain will improve.”

Ted elaborated: “I have a 128 IQ, but 140 is genius.  I was in the 97th percentile, so that means 3 percent of people were smarter than me. I knew I was going to have to work hard if I wanted to accomplish something in life. So I read a lot — classics, warfare, Alexander the Great — I used my brain all the time. Everything I did was education.  Others just shot the breeze, wasted time — nothing wrong with that, but you can’t get to the top doing that.”

Ted’s answer points to a combination of aptitude and hard work. (I think it’s interesting that Ted thought being in the 97th percentile meant he’d have to work hard if he wanted to accomplish something…”

Read whole interview here.

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